This is excellent news! Gay kids have a tough enough time growing up, having to face abuse from bigots and homophobes (not to mention the parents who sometimes disown them). This kind of peer support can go a long way in making sure they grow up to be decent, well-adjusted human beings.

I wonder if the evangelical megachurches will try and force a schism in scouting? they aren't going to like this news at all. of course, the evangelicals are more than welcome to found their own private organization that excludes gays from it's ranks...but that will cost quite a lot of money, and well...they ARE prosperity gospel types.

Weaver95:Lenny_da_Hog: Weaver95: their clubhouse, their rules. if they decided to change 'em, then that's their prerogative.

Except when they get preferential treatment from government organizations. Then it's my clubhouse they're using.

think of it this way - would you rather the BSA get 'special treatment' or a couple of megacorps? given the choice, i'm prepared to let things slide for the scouts.

Well, think of it this way -- would you like a fundamentalist church to get special treatment or a couple of megacorps? Would you like the KKK to get special treatment, or a couple of megacorps? Would you like Greenpeace to get special treatment or a couple of megacorps?

Lenny_da_Hog:Weaver95: Lenny_da_Hog: Weaver95: their clubhouse, their rules. if they decided to change 'em, then that's their prerogative.

Except when they get preferential treatment from government organizations. Then it's my clubhouse they're using.

think of it this way - would you rather the BSA get 'special treatment' or a couple of megacorps? given the choice, i'm prepared to let things slide for the scouts.

Well, think of it this way -- would you like a fundamentalist church to get special treatment or a couple of megacorps? Would you like the KKK to get special treatment, or a couple of megacorps? Would you like Greenpeace to get special treatment or a couple of megacorps?

buzzcut73:Mitt Romneys Tax Return: FTFA:Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute in Washington, D.C., said the shift "would utterly change Scouting and dramatically reduce their ranks. The Catholic and Mormon groups would simply have to walk away."

And another group of bigots with "Family" in their name. Good for the Scouts; it's about damn time.

I'd be OK with the religious groups walking away, they kind of took over for the past couple of decades and screwed things up.

/Former non-gay boy scout//We had gay kids in my troop, as well as a few others///Nobody really gave a shiat

You don't know BS history if you think they just recently took over. Two things - it started as a military and religious prep organization.

WordyGrrl:This is excellent news! Gay kids have a tough enough time growing up, having to face abuse from bigots and homophobes (not to mention the parents who sometimes disown them). This kind of peer support can go a long way in making sure they grow up to be decent, well-adjusted human beings.

The times they are a'changing. Hell even when I was a kid in the not so long ago 1980s, people weren't openly gay for the most part. Now they are, and that's what's driving this. I'm not gay, but I know gay people. Beloved family of mine and my wife's happen to be gay. I'm not alone in that. When you put a face to it, it takes it from being an abstract concept "Should gays have equal rights?" into something a lot more personal "Should my uncle, aunt, sister, brother, etc. who happens to be gay have the same rights that I do?" That, I believe, is what's truly behind this social shift, and I applaud any advances toward full equality, however small the boy scout thing may seem to be.

Lenny_da_Hog:They're still a group of bigots. They still say you can't be moral if you're non-religious.

Also, they still say gays aren't suitable to be scout leaders and volunteers -- basically, they're accepting gays into the ranks while telling them how awful they will be as adults.

They're a semi-religious organization so yeah no duh they're going to say atheists are immoral; probably never changing that oneAs for the 2nd part, if the non-African based Anglicans get more influence then that's probably out the window too

Weaver95:I wonder if the evangelical megachurches will try and force a schism in scouting? they aren't going to like this news at all. of course, the evangelicals are more than welcome to found their own private organization that excludes gays from it's ranks...but that will cost quite a lot of money, and well...they ARE prosperity gospel types.

TheWhoppah:People would have an issue if the school sent home little adverts for the students to join Hitler Youth so I'm not sure why this is any different.

You do know Hitler Youth was patterned after Scouts? Hitler so admired BP.s methods he plagiarized almost the whole system, then added a lot Fatherland mythology. I was touring the Anne Frank museum in Atlanta and was immediately struck by the HY display (which really was well done).